US health regulators announced on Wednesday that they had approved a highly anticipated anti-obesity drug from US giant Eli Lilly, the latest entrant in a key market for the pharmaceutical industry.
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The treatment, marketed in the US under the name Zepbound, is administered by injection once a week.
The molecule used was already approved for diabetes, but due to its effectiveness it was sometimes already prescribed for weight loss outside of the official recommendations of certain doctors.
In a large clinical trial, Zepbound was shown to result in significant weight loss, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in a statement.
Photo AFP / Eli Lilly
“Obesity and overweight are serious health problems that can be linked to some important causes of death, such as cardiovascular disease, stroke and diabetes,” said John Sharretts, director of a division that deals with obesity within the FDA.
Zepbound is now approved for overweight people on the one hand, but also for people who are overweight and also suffer from an associated health problem (type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol or high blood pressure).
Its use should be combined with exercise and a low-calorie diet, the FDA states.
The American authority warns of possible side effects: nausea, vomiting, constipation, abdominal pain, etc.
The price has been set by Eli Lilly at $1,060 per month, the American company said in a statement, which expects the treatment to be available in the country “by the end of the year.”
This high price, similar to treatments in the same class, poses an access problem for patients because obesity medications are often not covered by health insurance in the United States.
“Wider access to these medicines is critical,” Mike Mason, a company executive, said in a statement. “That’s why Lilly is committed to working with healthcare, government and industry partners to ensure that people who can benefit from Zepbound have access to it.”
Infatuation
Part of a new generation of treatments, this drug mimics a gastrointestinal hormone (GLP-1) that activates receptors in the brain that play a role in regulating appetite.
According to an analysis by JP Morgan, GLP-1 analogues represent a market worth $140 billion by 2032, which will continue to be dominated by Eli Lilly and Danish laboratory Novo Nordisk.
Eli Lilly’s molecule tirzepatide has already been marketed under the name Mounjaro for people with type 2 diabetes since FDA approval in 2022.
Novo Nordisk uses a molecule called semaglutide, which has been approved for obesity in the United States since 2021 under the name Wegovy.
Its diabetes counterpart, Ozempic, which has been approved since 2017, has recently been experiencing regular stock shortages after it caused an uproar on social media over its weight-loss properties.
This craze raises fears that people who are not clearly overweight are abusing it to lose a few pounds. For them, the risks associated with these medications cannot be outweighed by the benefits to the health of obese people.
A recent study examining several of these drugs, including Ozempic, showed that they increase the risk of gastrointestinal problems (intestinal obstruction, etc.).
Another problem that experts point out is that these treatments must be carried out over a long or even very long period of time, otherwise the weight lost will come back on.
In the United States, approximately 40% of adults suffer from obesity.